1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus having a function for authenticating a password, and specifically relates to a technology for preventing a password from being illegally deduced by using an injustice method and a technology without deteriorating a maneuverability of the password inputting operation conducted by the authorized user.
2. Description of the Related Art
A certain image forming apparatus has a function for authenticating a password, which makes it impossible to print a confidential document, etc., or to transmit it to an external device if the predetermined password is not inputted in the image forming apparatus. However, there has been a risk that the correct password can be deduced by sequentially inputting a lot of passwords, being different from each other, one by one, for instance, by employing the dictionary attacking method in which listed words are sequentially inputted one by one, the round-robin attacking method in which many passwords automatically created according to a predetermined rule are sequentially inputted one by one, etc.
As the countermeasure to cope with the abovementioned attacking trial, for instance, Patent Document 1 has set forth a technology, which makes it difficult to illegally deduce the correct password by prohibiting the re-inputting operation of another password for a predetermined time period when an incorrect password is inputted, and accordingly, makes it impossible to re-input many passwords one by one within a short time period.